New car sales in Europe reaching 20-year low

According to the latest numbers it is quite clear that new car sales in Europe have slumped almost 10 percent during the first quarter of 2013, which means that the market is spiraling down towards a 20-year low.

New vehicle registrations across the 27-menber European Union fell by about 320.000 units between January to March – France, Germany and Italy are those leading this massive slump, all of them showing double-digit percentage losses.

Only those three countries have seen a loss of 225,000 vehicles when compared with the first quarter of 2012. Most other smaller markets have been losing grown as well in Spain, Austria, Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands.

However that is not true for the entire continent, the United Kingdom has actually seen a 7.4 percent increase over the three-month period – the other countries that are still in the black are Belgium, Denmark, Estonia and Portugal.

Now let’s talk a bit about the various carmakers and how they’ve been affected by this massive European slump.

Ford has been the hardest hit with their sales falling one-fifth across the entire region, while the French conglomerate PSA Peugeot Citroen was down 15.3 percent.

The Toyota Group lots 17.6 percent, General Motors 12.8 percent, Fiat Group 9 percent, Renault group 8.1 percent and Volkswagen Group 7.5 percent, during the first quarter of 2013.

The BMW Group fell the least, 0.8 percent with the BMW brand actually growing by 0.7 percent, while Daimler increased by 0.1 percent.

While the overall trend is downwards, it doesn’t mean that absolutely all the manufacturers are seeing these effects, for instance Jaguar increased by 21.5 percent, Honda by 16.3 percent, Land Rover by 11.5 percent while Renault’s budget brand Dacia increased by 14.9 percent and Kia by 3 percent.

European analysts have suggested that the market in Europe could contract by as much as seven percent this year, falling below 2012’s 12 million mark.

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